Alan Tabern

Alan Tabern
Alan Tabern
Personal information
Nickname	The Saint
Born	29 September 1966 (age 58); St. Helens, Lancashire, England
Home town	St. Helens, Merseyside
Darts information
Playing darts since	1985
Darts	Target Darts [1]
Laterality	Left-handed
Walk-on music	The Saints Are Coming by The Skids
Organisation (see split in darts)
BDO	2004
PDC	2005–
Current world ranking	112
WDF major events – best performances
Int. Darts League	Preliminary round: 2007
PDC premier events – best performances
World Ch'ship	Quarter-final: 2007
World Matchplay	Quarter-final: 2008
World Grand Prix	Last 16: 2007. 2011
UK Open	Semi-final: 2006
Grand Slam	Group Stages: 2008
European Ch'ship	Quarter-final: 2008
Ch'ship League	Winners group, Semi-finals: 2008
Desert Classic	Quarter-final: 2008
US Open/WSoD	Semi-final: 2009
PC Finals	Last 16: 2009
Other tournament wins
Atlanta Players Championship	2008
Midlands Open	2008
PDC Challenge Tour England	2014, 2014, 2014
Southport Open	2009
Players Championship (NWE)	2008
Players Championship (WAL)	2008
UK Open Regional (NWE)	2006

Alan Tabern (born 29 September 1966 in St. Helens, Lancashire) is an English darts player in the Professional Darts Corporation.

Darts career

A left-hander, he made his PDC World Championship debut in 2005 with a surprising win over Alex Roy. He was beaten in the second round by Mark Dudbridge. Tabern reached the quarter finals of the 2007 PDC World Darts Championship, where he was beaten 0–5 by eventual winner Raymond van Barneveld. In the 2008 World Championship, he defeated Denmark's Per Laursen and Andy Jenkins before losing 3–4 in the third round to Phil Taylor, having led 3–2. Tabern caused a major shock in the 2008 Las Vegas Desert Classic by beating No.2 Seed and reigning champion van Barneveld 8–4 in the second round. In the 2008 World Matchplay Tabern reached the quarter-finals, knocking out current World Champion John Part before losing to Dennis Priestley.

Following this great run of form Alan attracted a new sponsor in Target Darts [2] and has just spent two months developing his own set of darts that he used for the very first time at the 2008 World Matchplay. In August 2008, Tabern claimed his second PDC Pro Tour victory in the Peach Tree Open in Atlanta by defeating Andy Hamilton 3–1 in the final and the next month he claimed another Players Championship win in Wales. This put him in the top 10 in the PDC Order of Merit for the first time in his career. Tabern played in the 2008 Grand Slam of Darts, where he was involved in the first televised nine-dart shootout after he and Hamilton had finished level on points and leg difference in their group. Tabern lost 265–169 in it, with only one of his 9 darts hitting treble 20, with three others in either five or one beds, contrasting with Hamilton's four treble 20s from six darts.

Tabern suffered a second round exit in the 2009 PDC World Championship, losing to Co Stompé. The following year, Tabern suffered another second round defeat, this time losing 3–4 to Mark Dudbridge having missed six darts to win. Tabern once again missed six match darts in the second round of the 2011 tournament against Mark Walsh.

World Championship results

PDC

2006: 2nd round (lost to Mark Dudbridge 0–4)
2007: quarter-final (lost to Raymond van Barneveld 0–5)
2008: 3rd round (lost to Phil Taylor 3–4)
2009: 2nd round (lost to Co Stompé 1–4)
2010: 2nd round (lost to Mark Dudbridge 3–4)
2011: 2nd round (lost to Mark Walsh 3–4)
2012: 2nd round (lost to Paul Nicholson 0–4)

External links

Tabern's darts database